Unveiled - Humboldt Magazine - Humboldt State University

Ax-Wielding Students
Put Logging Tradition
on Display
FOR THE FIRST TIME this spring, Humboldt State played host
concurrently to the West’s top collegiate logging competition
and the annual Redwood Region Logging Conference. The college
competition was covered by ESPN-U, the national collegiate
sports network.
HSU’s Logging Sports Club welcomed 11 schools from five
other states and picked up eight wins in the competition. The
conclave was held in tandem with the 71st annual Redwood
Region Logging Conference, which educates students and the
public about logging and forestry practices and supports faculty
who attend the Forestry Institute for Teachers.
Contests were held at HSU’s Fern Lake, behind the new Kinesiology
and Athletics Building, and at Redwood Acres Fairgrounds
in Eureka. It included a variety of events that test forestry
knowledge as well as physical prowess. HSU’s team captured the
top five rankings in dendrology, a demanding trial in identifying
plants and trees. The men’s timber cruising team took first place
in its category, which involves estimating tree volume inventory.
There were many newcomers this year to the Logging Sports
Club and they performed exceptionally, too. Freshman Jack Kidder,
a forestry hydrology major, won the men’s birling contest (balancing
on a floating log) with scarcely three weeks of practice.
Whitney Chaney Buttleman, right, a senior in natural resource
interpretation, shows off her underhand chop. Below, freshman
Jack Kidder competes in the men’s birling contest. He won the
log rolling competition with only three weeks of practice.